Hot take but you can’t learn about paganism without also learning about white supremacy and how it uses pagan religions to push hate group agendas all over the world today. If you don’t learn about the connections between the two and how it operates, your ignorance enables white supremacists to keep on doing it and using it to recruit others. People in our community who do nothing and stay silent are literally a part of the problem, there is no opting out whatsoever. Divorcing the two makes the issue repeat itself over and over and over again.
It’s not hard to include this in your research and stay aware. It’s the bare minimum.
"maybe being the lead writer of a fairly dark fantasy game is not the ideal role for someone who gets stressed out by conflict in fiction"
yeah I can't stop thinking about this either, ever since I first read it. There's so much going on. I read the first chapter of this book, and the tension that was so unbearable in it was "main character's uncle dies and main character's father talks about maybe keeping the inheritance from her" - that's the stressful plot point that couldn't be handled.
I had some people upset with me years ago about suggesting (and grimly sticking to my gut) that maybe the writers of the video game had something to do with the deeply different writing tone and scope and depth of the video game (experienced subjectively by many people). none of the many interviews since then with the head writer talking about comfort in fiction have proven me wrong at all. I cannot imagine the situation where they would willingly add a distressing conflict where it wasn't already there, or fight to include a darker tone. They said "we're going to proudly do this our way and it's not going to be the same as if Gaider was there to lead" and called it a day. And I think they genuinely still don't understand what happened because the tone genuinely pleased them.
If anyone needs a copy of this book, I can happily send you a PDF copy so you can make a value judgement for yourself. I will say that I read the first few chapters after seeing this post and it is literally so mild. Like. Mind-boggling levels of weenie hut jr stuff. Between posts like this, the Escapism panel and the Empires panel it's clear that there was a major disconnect between the lead writer and the actual subject matter of the series, and it's just bizarre to me that we're supposed to pretend that there isn't.
I don’t trust this take, because the individual who supposedly wrecked such-and-such a game is so often a woman or minority member who allegedly corrupted the vision of the straight white guys* who were supposedly behind what was good about the original work.
*Actually, a lot of this discourse involves straight Japanese guys, but the people who often start this discourse are weirdly less racist against Japanese people than they are against black people.
As we look forward to another year, there’s no better time to celebrate our wonderful community of creators. This year, we’re shining a spotlight on our alumni: the talented writers and artists who successfully completed the Dragon Age Big Bang in previous years. All past DABB alumni were given the option of an interactive interview with our mod Alix, or an informal written survey. If you’re thinking about participating this year, check out the insights and advice from those who tread this path before!
On cave trauma
Alix and Joly talk first fandom events and scope creep
Alix: So, DABB retrospective time! Tell me a little bit about the fic you wrote last year and what drew you to your idea?
Joly: I wrote "The Scorpion and the Halla" which was about an Arlathan-era agent of Fen'Harel investigating the first instance of Ghilan’nain’s Blight Labs and the concept of the Blight as something that could infect people and cause problems. DAtV has those memories you can uncover, and I have complicated feelings about them, but they are a neat narrative device and I really wanted to look closer at the concept of the Blight as both an experiment gone wrong (or right, if you're Ghilly) and the repercussions of the war with the Titans.
Alix: What was your favourite thing (or thing(s), if you can't pick just one) about your fic? Is there anything you were particularly proud of?
Joly: I joke a lot about the Cave Trauma because it was really hard to write such an extended action-heavy sequence, but I am really pleased with the result! I think the rising action and climax of discovering the Blight experiments and trying to get that news back to the Rebellion reads well as an action-sequence, which has never been something I feel strong about in my writing.
Alix: I do remember all the talk of caves!
Joly: It went on so long. I think it ended up being like. Five chapters? Maybe six? It was supposed to be two.
I thought I was gonna die there.
Alix: It's wild how things can grow beyond our control like that. You think you have it all planned out, and then....
Joly: I feel like that happened to a lot of folks. We all got into some spot where it just kept going or we realized this one spot needed to be dialed in to focus.
Alix: There's a reason we all joke about scope creep!
What was it that made you sign up for DABB in the first place?
Joly: I hadn't really done a fandom event before, and I knew I had an idea I could stretch into the word count. Prior to last year's DABB I'd never really attempted a multi-chapter fic so it was super intimidating, but I wanted to see if I could hold a narrative that long. Turns out I can!
Alix: One of the things I've noticed doing these interviews is how many people signed up for DABB as their first significant fandom event, and that's just so delightful to me.
Joly: Yeah! It was a really nice experience to introduce me to fandom events, when I had worried it was going to be overwhelming.
Alix: Is there any advice you want to share with this year's writers?
Joly: I think for me it was really important to get the idea down before worrying about word count. You can always go back and pad places or cut back. What helped me stay on track was making sure the narrative was moving forward and then coming back to fix the paint.
Mostly I think being active in the chat and encouraging others and receiving that encouragement was the best part of the experience, so I would definitely recommend getting brave and making friends. It never felt like a burden to work on the project, because the chat was always active and ready to cheer whatever you manage for that day.
Hi Rosa sorry for forgetting your book that one time
Still trying to figure out her likeness. If anyone has any good reference sheets like hans and henry do, I'd love to see them!
Names are powerful in the spirit world. Having a spirit’s name is very useful when attempting to work with it. If you don’t know a spirit’s name but you need to address it, you can instead use the invocation: “YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!”
its fr not lost on me that a lot of nonblack fans of this season see no issue and r getting mad at black fans for disliking how things are going like . ive seen hoards of white fans argue that nothing is wrong bc “its gothic they r all bad people” when the first two seasons made them all bad people and still was able to do so without being crazily racist
it feels so evil that you can't still access your university online library after you graduate *remembers my principles* it feels so evil that everyone can't access to that stuff all the time
Here's my full piece for the KCD fan zine, which you can order HERE (early bird pricing is only available until the end of July, so you might wanna get in quick!)
Profits for the zine will be donated to the Pirkstein Bell Tower restoration!
Can we talk about how big Radzig smiles when he runs into Henry on the road post Maleshov? Like first of all Henry's already been gone for ages on what was supposed to be a quick and safe trip, and now last he's heard from Godwin was that his son got tortured (again!!!) and sure he escaped imprisonment, but he's still probably been really worried!
So it must've been quite a relief to see Henry alive and well (on the outside at least) having just done this insane thing of saving Hans from imprisonment all by himself.
Radzig's not the best at showing it, but he really does love his son so much 🥹
I love how his composure only seems to slip around his son! Otherwise he's so level headed and collected and calm. But around Henry he gets nervous, he starts beaming, etc.
